Archive for April, 2009

Having done a fair amount of freelance work, I have a lot of experience with different types of clients. Some are easy to work with, some difficult. Some pay you on time, some argue over money but pay you in a timely manner, some take a bit to pay you but just cause they’re lazy and you get the money eventually. Then there are the deadbeats. You do a site for them, you put it up in good will, and they don’t pay you. You send them an email asking for payment, they side step you and still don’t pay. What do you do to protect yourself against this?

You could say “I’m gonna take the site down within 10 days if I don’t receive payment.” This is all well and good, but what if the client decides that they’re gonna change their FTP password and lock you out? You’re screwed.

Since I am currently dealing with a deadbeat client, I thought of how I could negotiate this. Then I realized….PHP!

PHP can change (and delete!) directories on a server. So by hiding a simple PHP script on the clients site, one which only you would know how to get to, you can put a little insurance in there that will let you delete the entire site by simply going to a URL.

Here’s a link to the code that I am using (thanks to Kunal Patel for the link )

Recursive Directory Delete with PHP

Here are a couple mini projects/experiments with openFrameworks I’ve been working on recently. I think I’m finally starting to grasp the whole code driven audio thing, although its still a bit fuzzy to me as far as music theory and making things that sound really good. I think these could definitely be either revisited or expanded upon in the future (hint: final project?)

Circular Type Audio Experiment from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Vibrating Shapes Creating Audio from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Drop Sequencer v1.0 from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

I just attended a REALLY interesting lecture at Parsons by Robert Pietrusko and his partner on data visualization, they are doing some really cool stuff and had a great presentation. Here are links to some of the sites they discussed during their lecture:

http://cavs.mit.edu

http://www.qkw.com/devplan/pvmm/refer/marklombardi.htm

http://www.gapminder.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lombardi

http://www.theyrule.net/

http://www.chrisharrison.net/

http://www.stewdio.org/windmaker/

Here is a project using Arduino-generated sound.

Basically I wanted to combine an old school/do it yourself 80’s nerd feeling with the old-school/do it yourself 80’s break dancing/hip hop feel. I also wanted to create something that could be sold as a kit for a very reasonable price and would allow people to create their own custom beat boxes that would be uniquely theirs. I also see opportunity for releasing a line of artist-based boxes, either in somewhat limited quantities or as one-off truly custom units that could be sold for charity.

Beat Boxx is an interactive beat creator and recorder that allows users to lay down digital loops of blips and beeps or perform them live. Through the use of gesture based beat selection, users can choose to either perform live or record a sample and endlessly loop it. Simple and affordable, Beat Boxx is available as both a pre-made ready to go unit and as a user buildable/customizable kit.

Beat Boxxx! from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Here’s a simple example using IR sensors with some LEDs to show the distance detected.

IR Sensor with LEDs from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Here are two simple and one more advanced sound visualizers I made using openFrameworks and the FFT and Aubio C++ libraries. Really getting into this stuff now that i’m getting my head around it a little more, wish I could put more time into it but it tough. Hopefully make something really cool soon now that I’m understanding it.

Audio Driven Animation from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Square animation using openFrameworks and Aubio from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Aubio/FFT Audio Visualizer from Steve Varga on Vimeo.